A powerful headline speaks volumes with just a few words. And Tuesday night after it became apparent Mitt Romney had defeated Rick Santorum in the Illinois Republican presidential primary, Internet headlines were shouting from the digital rooftops — so much so that numerous headlines managed to attach a palpable sense of blunt finality to what had just happened in the Prairie State.

Below is a sampling of some of the best the Romney-related headlines that prominent news sources ran Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, with links to the corresponding articles.